1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a recuperative heat exchanger comprised of ceramic material and including several chambers, arranged side-by-side in a row, and all having inlet and outlet openings for the material involved in the process of heat transfer, wherein adjacent chambers have a common dividing wall between them, and alternate chambers respectively transmit one or the other of the media involved in the process of heat transfer. Such a heat exchanger is shown in German patent application P No. 27 07 290.8.
2. The Prior Art
Certain known recuperative heat exchangers of ceramic material are in the form of plate heat exchangers. The plates, which are stacked one above the other, define the dividing walls between the media flowing through the chambers. Plate heat exchangers have large areas for exchanging the heat and, with respect to their weight and the volume they occupy, the efficiency of heat exchange is good. The heat exchangers are, therefore, particularly suitable for heat exchange between gaseous media in the field of gas turbines at temperatures ranging above 800.degree. C. From a paper by Tiefenbacher: "Problems of the Heat Exchanger for Vehicular Gas Turbines", ASME Publication No. 76-GT-105, 1976, ceramic cross flow heat exchangers are known. It has, however, been found that, from an economic point of view, cross flow heat exchangers do not satisfy the requirements for the construction of vehicles.
Other known recuperative heat exchangers comprised of metal, with heat exchangers matrices of a high efficiency of heat exchangers with respect to the volume occupied and the weight, are in the form of counter flow heat exchangers (cf. British Pat. No. 655,470). In these heat exchangers folded strips of sheet metal are used. They are closed at the side areas and at the head end and are covered along the ridge of the fold in such a way that openings remain for the media involved in the process of heat exchange to flow to the matrix of the heat exchanger. An axially symmetrical heat exchanger of this type is known from German Laid-Open Patent No. 2 408 462. In this heat exchanger, the media involved in the process of heat exchange flow through the matrix of the heat exchanger in an axial direction. These heat exchangers are preferred particularly because, with the simple possibility of connecting to the pipes in which the media are flowing, any differences in pressure and temperature between the media involved in the process of heat transfer can be optimally compensated for. The manufacture of heat exchangers of ceramic material, of the same type as known metal heat exchangers, by folding thinly rolled ceramic material is, however, beset with difficulties. Large numbers of heat exchangers cannot be made in this way.